A Euston pub fire from the top of the Tate Modern Extension

Yes. After photoing Cromwell, and much else besides, and having been lifted to the top of the Tate Modern Extension, I mostly then photoed my fellow photoers.

But I also photoed this:

Yes, a fire. There were absolutely no clouds in the sky of any sort, except for that cloud, and it had to be a fire on the ground.

Another photo taken seconds later told me more about where this fire was:

Whenever I photo something interesting or out-of-the-ordinary, I try to remember to photo as much context as I can, so I can find out more about whatever it was when I get home. Signs and street names can help a lot, to pin down what and where it is, if I’m right next to it. You think you’ll remember, but what if you are only investigating years later, when all you have is the photos. With a story like this, several photos with varying zoom are a good idea, to make location easier to identify.

In the foreground there is the Blackfriars Station Bridge. That tells me what particular slice of London the fire was in. Even my googling skills were more than sufficient to tell me that the fire in question, given that I had the time of it as well as the approximate place, was one that broke out at the top of the Somers Town Coffee House.

It would seem that everyone in there got out, and there were no fatalities or even serious injuries. I say this because the only news about this fire happened while it was raging and for about half a day after. No fatalities or serious injuries were reported in those early reports. After that early news: no news, or none that I could find. No news, with news of this sort, is surely the best sort of news.

Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog

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